Members blueyedmule Posted March 11, 2009 Members Share Posted March 11, 2009 Call me crazy, stupid, whatever. I went ahead and bought a new computer with the tax refund--upgrading from my old Mac Sawtooth 400. We (wife and I) decided against Mac and for a PC. This is what I ended up with: Operating System: Microsoft Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rpsands Posted March 11, 2009 Members Share Posted March 11, 2009 I use audacity and it works OK (and is free). Unfortunately, I still have yet to figure out how to record bass at reasonable levels. It always comes out sounding like crap because I have to amplify the hell out of it. Curse the Bass Pod's levels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bleepo Posted March 12, 2009 Members Share Posted March 12, 2009 My standard answer: Reaper works with x64 vista well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ToeJamFootball Posted March 12, 2009 Members Share Posted March 12, 2009 www.reaper.fm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 82Daion Posted March 12, 2009 Members Share Posted March 12, 2009 I will always recommend Pro Tools, but it doesn't come cheap. Reaper is OK if you're on a budget. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blueyedmule Posted March 12, 2009 Author Members Share Posted March 12, 2009 Thanks guys, I'll keep those all in mind. Think I'm getting a decent system?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 82Daion Posted March 12, 2009 Members Share Posted March 12, 2009 If you're just looking to record soundclips of bass, that system is all sorts of overkill, but that's not a bad thing. Hard to say whether any of the components are of any quality just by looking at the specs on paper, but the specs themselves are decent, as is the processor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ToeJamFootball Posted March 12, 2009 Members Share Posted March 12, 2009 I will always recommend Pro Tools, but it doesn't come cheap. Reaper is OK if you're on a budget. Reaper does everything Pro Tools can do. It also has less of a learning curve, and no track limit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 82Daion Posted March 12, 2009 Members Share Posted March 12, 2009 Reaper does everything Pro Tools can do. It also has less of a learning curve, and no track limit. And they're both overkill for recording single-track instrument clips. I wouldn't recommend Pro Tools to someone in the OP's situation, now that I read more closely into his situation, but if he's ever running more than 48 tracks (the current LE limit), I'd be surprised. I've never used Reaper for very long, but it looks to be capable enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Incubitabus Posted March 12, 2009 Members Share Posted March 12, 2009 And they're both overkill for recording single-track instrument clips. I wouldn't recommend Pro Tools to someone in the OP's situation, now that I read more closely into his situation, but if he's ever running more than 48 tracks (the current LE limit), I'd be surprised. I've never used Reaper for very long, but it looks to be capable enough. Is that all? Even GarageBand can do 255 tracks... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ToeJamFootball Posted March 12, 2009 Members Share Posted March 12, 2009 And they're both overkill for recording single-track instrument clips. I wouldn't recommend Pro Tools to someone in the OP's situation, now that I read more closely into his situation, but if he's ever running more than 48 tracks (the current LE limit), I'd be surprised. I've never used Reaper for very long, but it looks to be capable enough. Yeah, for sure :thu:I think it's bogus for any DAW to have a track limit... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 82Daion Posted March 12, 2009 Members Share Posted March 12, 2009 Yeah, for sure I think it's bogus for any DAW to have a track limit... Meh. Maybe I'm not creative enough, but even with a 5-piece band, I've never needed more than 12 tracks in Pro Tools LE, and that was with auxiliary percussion and a vocal overdub. 48 tracks would cover just about anything I needed to deal with at this point, and if I really needed to go beyond that, I would just bounce some stuff down. I'm not necessarily defending it, but I know Pro Tools so well that I'm willing to deal with some of its draconian limitations in trade for personal ease of use. That said I think that the hardware is much more limiting than the software, and I wish they'd allow it to work with third-party gear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blueyedmule Posted March 13, 2009 Author Members Share Posted March 13, 2009 82Daion: You said this new computer is overkill; how so?? Anyway. . .I hope, if I get the hang of recording well enough, to be able to do some hobby file-swapping of songs, adding tracks to, that sort of thing. Also, maybe playing with different music software, if I can afford to. AcidLoops used to be a big deal. Dunno if that even gets used anymore. Sonicforge?? Something like that. Amongst other things, of course. My wife wanted a big-enough horse to do some graphics work on, though she doesn't DO graphics. Yet. She's painting now, but thinks her ongoing art work may evolve in that direction possibly. I wanted a pc as powerful as I could afford comfortably, cos basically what seems like enough juice now (remember, a Sawtooth 400 was a BIG deal when it first came out), eventually won't be adequate. We're also going to VoiP, so this pc will be our phone, tv (Hulu, etc), interwebz thingie, pretty much do it all. Except for our nice big 42" rear projection three-panel LCD hi-def tv. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members philthygeezer Posted March 13, 2009 Members Share Posted March 13, 2009 Meh. Maybe I'm not creative enough, but even with a 5-piece band, I've never needed more than 12 tracks in Pro Tools LE, and that was with auxiliary percussion and a vocal overdub. 48 tracks would cover just about anything I needed to deal with at this point, and if I really needed to go beyond that, I would just bounce some stuff down. I'm not necessarily defending it, but I know Pro Tools so well that I'm willing to deal with some of its draconian limitations in trade for personal ease of use. That said I think that the hardware is much more limiting than the software, and I wish they'd allow it to work with third-party gear. I looked for Pro Tools LE on their website and all I can find is the upgrade version. WTF? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members HackedByChinese! Posted March 13, 2009 Members Share Posted March 13, 2009 82Daion: You said this new computer is overkill; how so?? You're doing 1 track of audio at a time with a quad-core processor and 4GB of RAM. It's far more system resources than you need for that purpose alone. In other words, don't worry about it. (other stuff) And it'll be fine for this as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JacieFB Posted March 13, 2009 Members Share Posted March 13, 2009 www.reaper.fm Reaper should change its website to www.reaper.ftw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blueyedmule Posted March 13, 2009 Author Members Share Posted March 13, 2009 You're doing 1 track of audio at a time with a quad-core processor and 4GB of RAM. It's far more system resources than you need for that purpose alone. In other words, don't worry about it. I was gonna build a PC using an AMD Phenom II X3 710, then changed to a 720, 2.8 Ghz Triple-Core. Ya know, something much smaller. But it was cheaper to buy this prebuilt than to build, so I had ta. Mom said. I mean, the Mrs. Ya know, when I bought the Sawtooth 400 it was such an improvement over how slow my little iMac 333 Mhz had become, but now even my 'tooth is hurtin' me. It'll be nice to get up on this quad-core. I'll finally be able to watch youtube and hulu without it bein' so stop n' go. I watch some youtube stuff, the song finishes nearly a minute ahead of the lagging video. From all the benchmark stuff I was teachin' myself to read, the AMD chip I'm getting is really a stud, pretty much the only chip leaving it somewhat behind is the new Intel i7 stuff, and that's $$$$$, and overkill as well. I understand from some gamer-folk that the i7 doesn't necessarily outperform mere mortal processors when gaming. I forget why, my eyes got all glassy at that point. *sigh* I really wanted to do the build. . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ToeJamFootball Posted March 13, 2009 Members Share Posted March 13, 2009 Reaper should change its website to www.reaper.ftw. I agree Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members zachoff Posted March 13, 2009 Members Share Posted March 13, 2009 Huh... I was thinking of getting Sony Acid Studio... Anyone know if it's better or worse than Reaper? I just need something that works with EZ Drummer & isn't wicked expensive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ToeJamFootball Posted March 13, 2009 Members Share Posted March 13, 2009 Huh... I was thinking of getting Sony Acid Studio... Anyone know if it's better or worse than Reaper? I just need something that works with EZ Drummer & isn't wicked expensive. I haven't used Acid in a long time, I remember it not being a DAW in full, but more like a sampling program..... I could have that completely wrong though. Reaper is free btw, you have the option to buy a license but it isn't enforced. It is a trial version until you want to pay for it, Full trial version. Plus when you do want to buy it, it's only like $40. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members philthygeezer Posted March 13, 2009 Members Share Posted March 13, 2009 I looked for Pro Tools LE on their website and all I can find is the upgrade version. WTF? Anyone know the answer to this? Is there a full version one can purchase? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ToeJamFootball Posted March 13, 2009 Members Share Posted March 13, 2009 Anyone know the answer to this? Is there a full version one can purchase? You should be able to buy it from MF.... EDIT: I just remembered. You can't use Tools without Digidesign Hardware. Same geos for Tools M-Powered and M-audio. So I am assuming the Tools Disc comes with new Hardware. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 82Daion Posted March 13, 2009 Members Share Posted March 13, 2009 Anyone know the answer to this? Is there a full version one can purchase? You have to buy a piece of Digidesign hardware (MBox, etc.) in order to get a copy of the Pro Tools software. You can't use Pro Tools without the hardware, like TJF noted. It's one of the dumber things about Pro Tools, and it's also the reason why I'll probably use Logic Studio if I ever build a home studio. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jazz Ad Posted March 13, 2009 Members Share Posted March 13, 2009 No firewire ? That's unfortunate for music use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members lokidecat Posted March 13, 2009 Members Share Posted March 13, 2009 Audio:Integrated Realtek ACL888 8-Channel High-Definition Audio with Jack Sensing I don't like my computer to know when I'm doing that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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